Malaysia’s imports rose 0.6% year-on-year to MYR 125.25 billion in July 2025, defying market consensus of a 4.3% decline and marking the fourth consecutive month of growth. Still, the pace eased from a marginally revised 1.3% increase in June, pointing to the slowest gain since March due to spillover effects from expansive US trade duties. Imports grew for capital goods (20.6%) but fell for consumption goods (-5.0%), intermediate goods (-17.8%), and dual-use goods (-24.6%). By sector, manufacturing imports went up (1.5%), mainly led by E&E products (12.4%). In contrast, agricultural imports tumbled 11.6%, weighed by natural rubber (-9.6%) and other vegetable oils (-4.3%). Mining imports dropped 4.1%, dragged by LNG (-47.7%). Purchases went up from China (6.3%), Taiwan (51.6%), and South Korea (37.8%) but shrank from the U.S. (-22.2%), the EU (-10.6%), the ASEAN countries (-6.8%), and Japan (-6.2%). For the first seven months of the year, total imports rose 5.1% to MYR 830.2 billion.